Hey guys,
It would seem that justice may have finally caught up with some of the last surviving Nazi war criminals.
John Demjanjuk (photo) was found guilty of war crimes this morning; the verdict comes one day after he refused to make a final statement in court. The verdict marks the end of the 18 month long trial. Demjanuk, age 91, is guilty of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder, the number of people who were killed while he was a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi occupied Poland
“The World’s Most Wanted Nazi”, Sandor Kepiro, a 97 year old former Hungarian police captain proclaimed his innocence last week as his war crimes trial began. Kepiro has been accused of leading and participating in raids which targeted Jews, Serbs, Gypsies, and other “undesirables.” Kepiro acknowledges that he participated in the raids, but denied any responsibility in the killings. Kepiro had been living in hiding in Argentina
Klaas Carel Faber, age 89, is currently living freely in the Bavarian city of Ingolostadt Netherlands Germany currently refuses to extradite Faber back to the Netherlands as they recognize citizenship granted by Hitler for members of his SS, and Germany
It is too late to go after these men for their crimes? What is the point of prosecuting such old men for crimes committed over 70 years ago? However old a person is, do authorities have a responsibility for making these people answer for what they have done?
What do you think?
Once a murderer always a murderer...once a pompous Nazi always a pompous Nazi. That's how I like to look at it. I personally don't care if you committed a crime yesterday or 70 years ago, the crime still happened and the victim still endured the horror and anguish that can never be taken away. Many will argue that the Nazi's that were in charge of the extermination at death camps and on patrol were only listening to the orders of there Commander Hitler. But people have the moral conscience to decide whether or not to listen to this hyenas order. They could have easily chosen to disguard it for the sake of the lives of the innocent. But they decided to kill countless amounts of people in unorthodox and unnecessary ways. Finding these men and incriminating them was a wise decision despite the factors of time, age and motive.
ReplyDeleteI believe that is absolutely necessary to punish these men for the crimes they committed decades ago. I do not care if someone killed a person at the age of seven, and they were caught one-hundred years later, a price has to be paid for your actions.
ReplyDeleteThese men knew that the actions they were performing were terrible. Whether or not they had the betterment of Nazi Germany in mind, murdering a defenseless Jewish person, or gypsy, in any instance, is the wrong thing to do. The operative word in that sentence is 'defenseless.' When someone is groveling on their knees, pleading for mercy, with nothing more than the soil they are clinging onto in their hands, and you shoot them in the face, you have committed an extremely disgusting act. Take that and multiply it by hundreds, or even thousands, and you have what some of these men did. What they did seventy years ago is absolutely inexcusable. They could be eighty, ninety, or two-hundred and fifty-nine, these people have to be punished.
-Jake M.